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How to Care for Ponytail Palms

Poneytail palm indoors by a window. The Beaucarnea Recurvata, also known as Ponytail Palm, or Nolina is a houseplant with a swollen thick brown stem and the long narrow curly, green leaves flow up from this base.
Photo Credit
Renata.Ka/Shutterstock
Botanical Name
Beaucarnea recurvata
Plant Type
Houseplant
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Part Sun
Soil pH
Neutral
Flower Color
White
Yellow
Hardiness Zone
9
10
11

Growing Ponytail Palm Houseplants: Watering, Lighting, Repotting, and Pests

Catherine Boeckmann
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Ponytail palms, or elephant foot palms, are unique-looking, long-lived indoor plants that thrive on benign neglect. They are straightforward to grow—provided that you don’t overwater them! Here’s how to grow and care for a ponytail palm in your home.

About Ponytail Palms

Despite its name and palm-like appearance, the ponytail palm is not a true “palm.” In fact, it is more closely related to desert plants in the Agave and Yucca genera (such as Joshua trees).

The typical ponytail palm consists of a large, domed “stump,” which tapers off into a thinner stem. As the plant ages, one or more rosettes of long, green, leathery leaves develop from the top of the stem. Indoors, the leaves can reach up to 3 feet long, but outdoors, they may be double that length.

In its native environment (eastern Mexico), the entire plant has been known to reach up to 30 feet in height! However, ponytail palms grown in gardens as landscape plants don’t usually reach more than 10 feet tall. 

Kept indoors, they are rarely taller than 4 feet. However, as Susan Mahr of the University of Wisconsin-Madison explains, “In containers, ponytail palms will grow slower than if in the ground, and the plants will remain small if kept in a small pot. They can go for many years before needing to be repotted. Moving it to a larger pot will give it room to grow in both height and girth. They can be very long-lived and can easily outlive their owners. However, older plants may be difficult to manage because of sheer size and weight if not kept on the smaller size.”

Care of this plant is generally simple; the most common difficulty is adapting your watering habits to its needs!

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Planting

Choosing Soil and a Pot

  • Use a fast-draining soil, such as a cacti and succulent potting mix. If you already have potting soil, sand, and perlite on hand, you can create your own desert soil mixture: Mix 1 part potting soil, 1 part perlite, and 1 part sand. 
  • Select a pot with a hole in the bottom so that excess water can be drained off. Ponytail palms do not like to sit in moist soil for very long.
  • Use a clay pot if possible; the porous material will absorb some of the water, drying out the soil more quickly (a good thing for cacti and succulents).

Growing

How to Care for Ponytail Palms

  • Ponytail palms prefer to have as much light as possible, so place the plant in a bright location. Bright, indirect sunlight is best.
  • Keep soil fairly dry. Water from spring through fall, allowing the top inch or two of soil to dry completely before re-watering. During the winter, only water occasionally.
  • To water, soak the soil and allow the excess water to drain through the bottom of the pot into a dish. Let the pot sit in the dish for several minutes, then dump out any remaining water in the dish. 
  • Fertilize in the spring with a cacti/succulent fertilizer and bring into a brighter room for the summer months. 
  • Average room temperature is acceptable for most of the year, but to replicate the natural dormancy cycle, keep the plant slightly cooler in the winter (50°–55°F / 10°–13°C).
  • Don’t let the plant sit too close to cold windows at night during winter, as freezing temperatures can severely damage it.

Repotting a Ponytail Palm

  • Ponytail palms will remain small if kept in a small pot. They can go for many years before needing to be repotted. Repotting every other year at the most is all a ponytail palm needs.
  • Moving the plant to a larger pot will allow it to grow in height and girth. However, older plants may become challenging to manage due to their sheer size and weight if they are not kept at a smaller size.
  • When selecting a new pot, pick one large enough to leave about an inch or so of space between the ponytail palm’s trunk and the pot’s rim. 
  • Note: Use caution when handling a ponytail palm, as its leaves have tiny serrated edges.

Harvesting

Propagation

  • Rarely, a ponytail palm may produce an offset—a tiny baby plant that stems from the base of the adult plant. These can be cut off at the base when they reach at least 4 inches in height and planted in a succulent potting mix. Before planting, allow the cut wound to heal, then apply some rooting hormone (available online and in nurseries) to encourage the offset to root. 
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Pests/Diseases

  • Overwatering can result in stem rot. If you withhold watering, the plant may be able to internally remedy the problem. Signs of stem rot include yellowing leaves and a caudex (the plant’s base and stem) that is soft or squishy. 
  • Spider mites and scale insects may find their way to the leaves, but can be dealt with by rubbing a cloth of dish soap and water on the stems. Spider mites are evidenced by the presence of spider-like webbing on the plant.
  • Brown tips on leaves can be a sign of overfertilizing or underwatering, so adjust your husbandry practices appropriately. They can also indicate that the plant is getting too much direct sunlight and too little water.

Wit and Wisdom

  • The plant’s unusual shape and coloration have granted it another strange nickname: the Elephant’s Foot Palm.
  • Are ponytail palms poisonous to cats? While the leaves of a ponytail palm are not toxic to feline (or canine) companions, their foliage does have abrasive edges that could irritate a pet’s mouth, so we suggest keeping the plant out of reach. 
Houseplant Guides
About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana. Read More from Catherine Boeckmann
 

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Comments

Yes, you can trim the lower leaves back! As long as you let the new growth grow unimpeded, the plant will be fine.

Dana Downey (not verified)

6 years 7 months ago

I have had my pony tail for ~ 44 years. It stands ~ 6.6' high. It has been in a 22" diameter X 16" tall pot for ~ 10 years. The bulb of the plant is ~ 17" in diameter (~ 2.5" from the edge of its pot). The tips of the lower palms have begun turning yellow, then brown and traveling up the palm until I have to remove them. The plant is still putting new palms out of the top of the plant. I water it ~ once every 2 weeks with about 1 qt of water. What can I do to stop the lower palms from dying? Does it need to be re-potted (would take a crane and a team to do so!)? If so, how much larger pot does it need? If not re-potted, how do I adjust its water (have watered it the same since 1974!)? This is an heirloom plant my mother gave me in 1974; it has been "babysat" by family as I was stationed overseas. My daughter has her heart set on inheriting it some day....

Karen Breen (not verified)

6 years 5 months ago

My Pony Tail Palm is 42 year old and thriving. I just re-potted it and brought it in for the winter. It has five babies on it also. To help it from drying out while inside, I mist the top of it and sometime down the trunk to keep it supple. Also, I don't pull off the dried palms when inside the house as that causes the top to dry out faster. Good luck!

Wow! That’s quite an old tree! Congrats on keeping it happy for so long.

Lower leaves turning brown is not usually a cause for concern—especially if the plant is continually putting out new leaves—as that’s just part of the natural growth cycle of the plant: grow new leaves, drop old ones. But, if this is the first time you’re seeing it happen after having the plant for so long, there may be outside factors in play.

Have you changed your source of water in the past year or so? Desert plants can be especially sensitive to chemicals in tap water (such as fluoride), which can cause the tips of leaves to turn yellow and brown. Try watering with distilled or spring water for the next few months and see if that solves the issue. 

Browning tips may also be caused by too much intense sunlight. But again, if the plant is still regularly putting out new growth, it seems like it’s happy where it is.

The pot size is likely not an issue, as ponytail palms don’t mind being constricted. Moving it to a larger pot will only encourage it to get even bigger (and more unmanageable)! The amount of water is also not likely a problem, as long as you are letting the soil dry out properly between waterings.

Linda P Morehead (not verified)

6 years 8 months ago

One of my pony tails bloomed this summer. I have never experienced this. What do I do?

The Editors

6 years 8 months ago

The short answer: Nothing!

Blooming is normal for mature ponytail palms, and the flowers are a treat for pollinators. Assuming you can reach the top of your ponytail palm, simply snip off the flower spike once it has faded. That’s it!

Sherrie (not verified)

6 years 8 months ago

I just bought 2 ponytail palms that were already potted from Sam’s. The planted palms have smalls stones on top of the soil and the stones seemed to be glued together. How in the world can I water them? Or is this something new for the top of a plant? By the way, they came from Costo Farms.

I bought my Poynytail Palm 4-5 years ago from Sam’s with pebbles glued on top. The directions said to give it 8 oz of water once a week. I left the pebbles on it and followed the watering directions. Benign neglect has worked wonders! I bought a bag of cacti/succulent potting soil this week, as the palm has “sunk” in the pot to reveal about 1.5 inches or more of the trunk. I’m a little reluctant to mess with success but I think it is time to freshen it up. Wish me luck! Lol

This is a common (and, quite frankly, dumb) practice done by some stores. Here’s our response to a previous comment regarding a ponytail palm bought from Sam’s: 

“With the way your plant is currently potted, it sounds like it will be very difficult to know when and how much to water, which will surely end up stressing out both you and the plant. Really, it would be best to repot it entirely. Try carefully removing the rocks to see if there’s any way you could get the plant out of the pot. If it’s cemented to the bottom of the pot, perhaps you could carefully break the pot apart (assuming it’s terracotta). Be careful not to snap the stem of the plant in the process. If you can manage to get the plant out, replant it with a succulent potting mix in a pot with a drainage hole and follow the care instructions outlined above.

If there’s absolutely no way to get the plant out, you could create a makeshift dip-stick to tell you when there’s no water left in the bottom of the pot. Assuming the rocks are fairly loose, take a straw and feed it down to the bottom of the pot, leaving a bit sticking up from the surface. To check the water level, take a piece of string and feed it through the straw to the bottom of the pot. If the string comes out bone-dry, it’s time to water again. Be careful not to water too much at once, as you don’t want the base of the plant to sit in water.”

Melinda Wharton (not verified)

6 years 9 months ago

hi I was given a small ponytail plant, I have had it since Christmas, I do have some brown leaves, but the bright green part just fell out of the top. The bulb of the plant is soft at the top but I only watered it twice? Can i save my plant. Thank you, Melinda Wharton